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Generative naming in Parkinson disease patients
K A Bayles1, M W Trosset, C K Tomoeda
1Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721.
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology
|July 1, 1993
Summary
Idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD) patients show impaired verbal fluency, especially on letter naming tasks. Cognitive decline in PD patients with abnormal Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores mirrors that seen in Alzheimer disease (AD).
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neurology
Background:
- Generative naming, a measure of verbal fluency, is often affected in neurodegenerative diseases.
- Idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD) is characterized by motor symptoms, but cognitive deficits, including verbal fluency, are also prevalent.
- Understanding these cognitive changes is crucial for differential diagnosis and patient management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the generative naming abilities of idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD) patients with those of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and healthy controls.
- To investigate the impact of cognitive status, as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), on verbal fluency in PD patients.
- To determine the specific challenges in semantic versus letter-based generative naming tasks.
Main Methods:
- Evaluated verbal fluency using semantic and letter generative naming tasks in 88 PD patients, 21 AD patients, and 43 healthy controls.
- Classified PD patients into groups based on MMSE scores (≥27 normal, ≤26 abnormal).
- Controlled for the effects of age and mental status in statistical analyses.
Main Results:
- Letter category naming proved more challenging than semantic category naming across all groups.
- Age significantly impacted generative naming performance.
- PD patients with normal MMSE scores demonstrated significantly poorer generative naming than controls, even after controlling for age and mental status.
- PD patients with abnormal MMSE scores exhibited performance comparable to AD patients when controlling for age and mental status.
- Ideational perseveration was the most frequent error type observed in all participant groups.
Conclusions:
- Verbal fluency, particularly letter fluency, is impaired in idiopathic Parkinson disease, independent of overall cognitive status in some cases.
- Cognitive impairment in PD, especially when accompanied by lower MMSE scores, can present similarly to Alzheimer disease.
- Ideational perseveration is a common error pattern in generative naming across neurodegenerative conditions and healthy aging.